Ten years into its EU membership and after millions of leva spent on infrastructure projects, some of which needed to be made over, owing to poor workmanship, a few days after they had been inaugurated, Bulgaria succeeded in setting up a public convenience facility at Kalotina, the border checkpoint with Serbia which is in fact this country's main land gateway to the West.

Off-limits to mortals under Communism as it was within the barbed-wire confines of a government hunting lodge this Thracian sanctuary has in recent years become something of a local tourism hit. It is not difficult to see why. Like other pre-historic peoples of pagan religions and no written language, the Thracians, who were a group of tribes inhabiting these lands about 20 centuries ago, were fascinated by stones.